Yesterday (July 9), Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander became a cover boy -- and a provocative one, at that -- when he graced PAPER magazine in a silken Versace shirt while sensually resting his head on a model’s bare thigh.

In the interview, the singer gets serious, firing shots at the passive homophobia that he still sees lingering around the music industry.

"In many ways, this is the very best time to be a gay artist ever," he says. "We wouldn't be where we are today without all the gay artists that have come before us and broken down so many barriers. But barriers aren't gone. Particularly for less privileged members of the queer community. There is this very insidious casual homophobia that exists in the fabric of everything including the music industry.”

Black queer artists like Ma Rainey, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Lorraine Hansberry, and Essex Hemphill have all made it a bit easier for me to dream. I was born in a perfect era as a feminine black gay man interested in being apart of pop culture and music to have a fighting chance of making a living off of that desire. The dreams I’m dreaming are large, but tangible. They are made possible because of the legacies black gay artists before me have left.

However, there is no black gay artist that opened up my imagination about who I can be while affirming who I am like disco icon—often referred to as The Queen of Disco—Sylvester.

I wanted to explain to my lover what it felt like living brown in a predominantly white gay ghetto. We chose to retire with our own people so we could finally settle into safety and harmony. I never met a more hostile and prejudice group of men and women. I'm only whole again when my lover pulls me back and reminds me what home is...us. 20-May-2018

I wanted to see boys and girls playing with each other. There are hidden subtexts in which the sexes can desire mutually and never live on the same page. The last dancer is silent because the openness she has shared with men is now declared mute. 14-Mar-2018